#enigmatech

A/N: I am not a medic, nor do I know a damn thing about medical treatment! Nothing gross. Nothing angsty. A touch of jealosy, but that's it. Tech figuring out what the fuck it means to flirt. Reader's callsign still used intermittently.

It's been so long since I've added to this story! I've been so busy. Lift took a turn I did not expect, but I think it's actually gonna be a good change! Just needed some time to figure out what to do with the curveball. I've had most of this chapter pretty much ready to go for a while tho, so it's time to release this to the world! Doing my best to getting back into writing these, I miss writing so much!

Tech dividers: @/djarrex

“Tech, let’s give those meds a few more minutes under observation to bring your system back to a somewhat normal level before we do anything else, just to make sure you’re stable. Okay?” Spitfire checks in with her patient. 

“Yes. That is an excellent idea. I will inform you if I perceive any changes in my current state of being. Perhaps it will provide adequate time for my brothers to receive medical attention as well?” 

“Certainly,” she nods, beckoning Wrecker over. “Wreck, the left shoulder?!? Again???!!! Your poor left shoulder, Big Guy! That’s at least the third time you’ve taken a hit to your left shoulder since the Empire became a thing!” 

“Tech told me once that it’s better that it’s my left rather than my right because I’m right handed.” Wrecker’s voice is quiet. 

Spitfire sighs, “He’s correct there, but either way, less hits to any of you at all would be ideal. Let’s get you patched up, Big Guy.” 

“Awwww, no I hate medical stuff. Do we have to?” 

“Yes, we want it to heal. It will be over before you know it. Tech and Crosshair are getting patched up too. I won’t do anything that might hurt if I don’t have to, I promise.” She pats his arm, trying to reassure the large man with touch as well as words. 

Tech didn’t remember seeing Wrecker take a hit to his shoulder, but he’s glad someone noticed. 

She has finally managed to sit Wrecker down and has started rummaging through the med pack Echo got out to use on Tech and Cross. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Wrecker fretting. 

“You remind me of another trooper I once worked with, Big Guy,” she starts, “I was working with the 104th at the time. The man’s name was Numbskull.” 

“Hah! how’d he get a name like that?” Wrecker asks. The room is quiet, all the men listening to her voice in an attempt to keep their minds off of the horrors they found within the walls of Hemlock’s facility. 

“By doing the same thing you do, Goofball! He took so many hits to his shoulder that he eventually lost all the feeling in his arm.” 

“His whole arm?” Wrecker seems stuck somewhere between amusement and worry. 

“Mmhmm. After enough hits to the pressure points and the spaces between the gaps in his armour, he said all he felt was a tingling in the back of his skull when the doc tried the good old pinch test.” 

“Where you pinch his arm to see if he can still feel it?” Once Wrecker started trying to think his way through the story, his worry began to fade.

“Exactly, all he felt was a little tingle in the base of his skull. And then eventually he lost all the feeling in his arm completely. But he could still use the arm like normal, he just couldn’t feel it.” 

“That doesn’t sound so bad. I’d rather not feel any pain.” Wrecker’s shoulders relax. 

Tech and Echo laughed, exchanging glances beside her, as she continued her work on Wrecker. The idea isn’t so bad to them either, a numb Wrecker would certainly be a lot easier to deal with during medical exams, thats for sure. 

She smiled. Her story was working, distracting and calming not just Wrecker, but all the boys, while she patched them up, but she was only getting started. 

“There was this one day where Numbskull was fighting a battle down a seppie hallway. The boys had managed to take out the main power generator, so the whole base was running on backup power. Now, this base was enormous! Definitely ended up a lot bigger than the Seppies intended it to be. So much so, that the entire base was really struggling to function on backup power. Doors would only half open and then get stuck, and blast doors could easily be pried back open without much effort. Battle was going surprisingly well. Turned out they were trying to empty the base anyway, probably because it got too big and was only good as a diversion anymore, so it was just a skeleton crew there. And Numbskull’s squad was one of the ones assigned to work their way through the hallways and clear out any droids they found.” 

She pauses to glance around the room at their faces to see if they want to hear the story before continuing, “Just his luck, Numbskull managed to find a room chock full of fully functional B1’s. Now, Numbskull liked to wield 2 blasters, one in each hand, like Tech over here.” 

Tech smiles, surprised she was aware since he had clearly not been doing that during today’s escape. 

“Numbskull’s preferred tactic was to plant himself in the middle of the driods and extend his arms in a T-pose so he could take down droids on either side at the same time, or so he claimed.” She demonstrated with her body: holding a pretend blaster in each hand, one outstretched on either side of her, pointing 180 degrees away from each other. “He thought that was the most fun way to take the droids down. After a while it kinda became his signature move.” 

By this point, all the men are engaged in the story, various expressions of amusement on their faces and in their stance and posture, not paying much attention to the medical checkups she and Echo were conducting. Even Omega was listening from Hunter’s lap, and Hunter seemed relieved that she was so entrenched in the story and was getting a little of her mojo back. She’d grown rather quiet since their return to the ship. Meanwhile Hunter conducted a discrete medical scan of his little girl with one hand while the other comfortingly petted her hair. 

“I was working with the Commander in the control room when the call came in. Numbskull’s squad had managed to draw the B1’s into the hallway, and Numbskull planted himself right in the middle of all the droids and pulled his signature move,” She’s laughing a bit as she tells the story. “The men were laughing so hard they could barely call it in. Turns out, Numbskull hadn’t noticed the blast doors closing, he’d been so focused on one blaster, he forgot to look back over his other shoulder at his numb arm too. You know how the blast doors close in a spiral so the last spot to close up is right in the center? Well, by the time he remembered to look at his other hand, his numb hand, his arm was stuck. The blast doors had closed around his wrist. It was a good thing the whole base was only functioning on low power, or it would have just taken his whole hand clean off and he wouldn’t have noticed a thing. In the end, he was fine, just some minor bruising. That was the day his squad knew they’d picked the right name for him.” 

Wrecker howled with laughter, and the rest of the room wasn’t far behind. 

“You should have seen the Commander’s face when the squad finally stopped laughing enough to tell him what had happened and that Numbskull was stuck and in need of an extraction.” 

Echo paused, halfway through a procedure for Crosshair, earning a glare from his patient as he turned towards the woman, “Wait, did you say you were working with the 104th?” 

“Yup!” She confirmed. 

“That was the Wolffepack?!” Echo’s disbelief echoes in the small room. 

“Yup!” she was laughing too. “So you know how Wolffe never smiles, and definitely never laughs?” 

“Yeah…?” Echo’s disbelief has turned to skepticism, but it’s quickly fading, she knows too much about Wolffe for this to be completely made up. 

“That was the closest that man has ever come to a laugh that I have ever witnessed. He could not believe the dumb shit his men had gotten into. He just stood there looking pained and staring into a corner for a second (though I think he was focusing all his effort on not laughing), before snorting in annoyance (or laugh that broke through his composure) and leaving the room. He told us later he had to ‘borrow Master Plo’s saber to get Numbskull out’. The control room was still on a holo-call with them when the second bout of uncontrollable laughter that came through the comms a few minutes later turned out to be the squad’s reaction to the way Wolffe just walked in and stood there, glaring at Numbskull’s arm for a solid minute, muttering something about ‘my circus, my monkeys’ and ‘definitely my idiots’ before he ignited the saber and took the doors outta commission.” 

Wrecker laughed again, loud and proud, and clearly relaxed. 

“All done, Big Guy!” she patted Wrecker’s uninjured shoulder, and he got up and walked to the cockpit. Omega jumped up and went with him, Hunter’s favorite soft blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders.  

Tech looked around the room. Spitfire had clearly done that to relax more than just Wrecker. His whole family (Omega was right) had clearly enjoyed the story. 

Echo declared Crosshair done, and he stood to leave the room. He’d been so tortured, he wasn’t exactly up for walking on his own yet, and she let him put a hand on her shoulder for balance. She discretely helped him up and passed him off to Hunter who was standing at the ready for him. But before Crosshair let go of her shoulder, he gave it a quick squeeze of thanks, and a barely noticeable nod. He too had appreciated the distraction. 

Echo joins her as they begin a scan of Tech’s injuries. 

Still laughing softly to himself Echo shook his head in disbelief, “I still can’t believe that’s a Wolffepack story,” he snorted, pinching his nose. “Does Rex know this one?” 

“Na. Never found the time to tell him. And somehow I don’t see Wolffe ever wanting to tell him that one either. But I sure hope he learns the story someday!” She had moved to helping Echo patch up Tech. 

Tech notices how easily she and Echo converse, not to mention the indicators of a shared history that seems to go back to Echo’s 501st days. Tech wishes he had something like that to help him figure out what to say to this brilliant Mandalorian woman. Tech lets his mind drift a bit as they continue their tests and scans, realizing this is only the second time in his life he’s felt this way about someone. 

Eye’s still glazed over, he begins to subconsciously turn towards the woman whenever she says something, but hardly reacts at all to anything Echo says. 

“Uhh,” Echo looks over at her, “I think this part will go a lot faster with two hands.” He holds out the next patch Tech will need. 

She smiles and takes it, “You don’t need my help, but since you’d rather I do this, I will.” She laughs, which makes Echo smile back. He always did love the sound of her laughter. 

Echo smirked, glanced between her and Tech, and left the room. 

Tech felt his own logic replaced by a sudden bashfulness, his mind nearly as blurry as his vision, but this time he gets the feeling the haze in his mind is from emotions rather than an unstable body in an environment designed to keep it off kilter. But he realizes her story was meant as more than just a way to calm them all down. She also liked it when her actions and words had many meanings, much like he did. She’d just given him a conversation starter. 

“Thank you,” he muttered, unable to look at her as she finished patching him up. “For calming down the whole… family with a story. You’ve no idea how much they needed that. Wrecker can be quite the handful during medical exams.” 

She laughs and nods, “Oh, I know.” 

It’s not long before they arrive at the medical facility. 

Medics determine that whether or not Tech needs a replacement eye is TBD, he needs to heal a bit first and they need to run a few more tests. So they send him back to his family and the Marauder. 

In the meantime, they are quite overwhelmed removing the chips from the hundreds of clones now roaming the hidden medical facility. To help process them all, Rex volunteers those who have previously had their chips removed and the Mandalorian to aid the processing. 

Naturally, she volunteers to help as much as she can. They assign her to work with Echo to monitor Tech’s state of health, and give her rotations of state of health checks for the other new rescues before and after chip removal, usually during Tech’s more intensive medical checkups with a real doctor. 

This also means she needs to be more familiar with the specifics of Tech’s injuries. Back on the Marauder, she, Tech, and Echo set about constructing more detailed notes about every new mod now adorning Tech. 

“I’m going to need you to take off your shirt for the next part so I can see the mods the medics mentioned on your torso, maybe add some fresh bacta and replace the bandages, you know the drill,” 

Tech obliges without question. It is a logical request, she is only doing her job and intends to help him to the best of her ability as he adjusts to life with his newly modified body. 

However, he finds himself sitting on the hem of his shirt. So, to make it easier, he simply stands up to take it off. 

She turns back around, having just traded out instruments in her hands, doesn’t realize that he stood up to remove his shirt, and nearly faceplants into his bare chest. 

Not that she’s complaining. 

She does everything she can to NOT visibly react beyond simple and expected surprise, but boy is that hard! Tech is ripped. The man has very chiseled muscles. Clearly, Wrecker and Hunter weren’t the only ones hitting the gym frequently. It made sense, they are military men after all. Being in good shape was a logical choice for war. Getting a lot of exercise was a given anyways, and was common amongst the battle-hardened Mandalorians she was used to as well. But somehow, all that had slipped her mind, until Tech took off the tops of his blacks, that is. 

She blushed and hoped her little inhale when she turned around and came face to face with his chest wasn’t audible. She does her best to concentrate on her work, but it’s hard given how attractive and intelligent this man is. 

Wrecker grins at Echo from the doorway. Her reaction wasn’t lost on him. 

Echo takes this as their cue to excuse themselves and return to the others in the cockpit. 

“Oop, sorry! Didn’t realize you stood up!” Is all she says. Fortunately, without his goggles, it wasn’t likely that Tech would notice if her cheeks were heating up. Unless he touched her face, which he had no reason to do, so nothing to worry about, right? 

“Ah, my apologies. You switched out tools more quickly than I anticipated,” Tech tried to look down at the blurry shape he knew was her. 

To verify that the medbay station has not shifted - since it’s not like he can just look at the wheels to see if it is locked in place - Tech turns slightly and leans to place a hand on the medbay station he had been seated at. 

Realizing only too late that she’s still in his personal space, she quickly attempts to shuffle back to a reasonable distance for two new acquaintances, only to find herself dodging his shoulder as he turns to place a hand on the pad. 

Tech freezes when his shoulder brushes past soft hair. He can hear her shuffling around quite close. “Oh, forgive me, I should have warned you I needed to locate my seat, so that you knew not to start yet. Now that I am once again seated, you may begin.” 

How sweet of him to assume she was simply eager to continue on with the state of health check. Of course that’s all it was. She tried to convince herself she had not just gotten distracted by his abs. 

Thankfully, Echo and Wrecker had returned to the cockpit with everyone else, so no one was there to witness the full extent of her embarrassment. As such, there’s nothing much that can be done except to plow on though the medical exams, so that’s what she does. 

Her hands are, once again, cold. So, she rubs them together in an attempt to warm them up before she begins. 

“I take it your extremities are usually cold?” Tech inquires. 

“Yeah, sorry. Not so great when I’m acting as a medic instead of a warrior.” Tech notes that this is the first time her voice has sounded a little shy. 

Following the sounds of her, he reaches out for her hands, and takes them in his. 

His touch is gentle, soft. Surprised that he reached for her hand at all, she is shocked into silence. 

“That hardly qualifies as cold. You may begin, if you are ready,” Tech states. 

“You know it will feel colder on the skin that is usually hidden beneath your blacks and your armor,” she points out, partially on autopilot, still trying to process the face that Tech just took her hands in his and that he just gave her permission to touch him. 

“Yes. I am prepared,” Tech assures her. 

“Alright, here goes,” she shrugs off her feelings as best as she can. 

Gentle fingers examine the lines between machine and man, searching for bruises and tender spots in the hopes that the internal damage is minimal and was well patched up. 

Tech is amazed by how gentle this woman’s touch is. There are moments when he is barely even aware that her fingers still rest on him. 

And he quite likes having her hands on his chest and arms. He’s never enjoyed touch so much, nor had he ever liked touch directly on his skin so much before. In fact, he usually didn’t like it. He’d been trained to wear blacks and gloves whenever he did anything - building things, warfare, even when typing. He didn’t like things on his skin. His blacks provided a welcome barrier between him and the strange textures of the world around him. 

Hunter had often placed a hand on his shoulder, and he’d noticed Captain Rex did the same. Even during medical assessments, the Kaminoans only touched the clones if it was absolutely necessary. Clone medics were a different story, many used touch to reassure stressed and pained brothers, but Echo, the medic of the 99th, knew Tech didn’t like touch. 

Wrecker’s touch often annoyed him though. Wrecker often forgot how strong he was, and roughhousing wasn’t uncommon around him. Tech didn’t like it when Wrecker would shove his shoulder, but Wrecker meant well, so Tech didn’t say anything about it anymore. 

But then she had touched him. And it was like she had known he was repulsed by, and unfamiliar with touch, so she kept her touches as light and barely-there as possible. As she works on a panel on his shoulder, her palm rests on his pec. 

Tech quietly revels in it, resisting the urge to place his hand upon hers and hold it there flat against his chest for a moment. Was this why Wrecker and Hunter liked touch? No, it couldn’t be. Her touch was not like any other being Tech had ever come into contact with, pun intended. She was special, but he barely knew anything about her. He could barely even see her… and though physical attraction had never been important to Tech before, he found himself aching just to know her face. It hadn’t helped that Echo had made a point to describe her as cute when he introduced her to Crosshair. He wondered what Echo considered cute… if only he could see, then he might understand the comment. 

Fixated on his ability to see, or rather lack thereof, Tech’s mind begins to spiral. He’s so used to being able to see the world around him, and so much of what he does depends on it, a few hours of blindness felt like an eternity. 

Much of what Tech did depended on his ability to see, but now he’s going to have to learn alternatives just to live. 

He can get a walking stick, or a guide massiff, though it’s not likely Hunter will allow the latter. They don’t need one more mouth to feed. Normally, he would just build a robotic one, but he can’t safely construct anything if he can’t see what he is doing. Gonky could help a bit as a proxy guide-massif, but there is a lot he can’t do, and he’s slow, Tech needed fast. 

Speaking of speed, would he ever be able to run again? It’s hard to move quickly if you aren’t aware of your environment. He wouldn’t be much help on missions if he can’t move quickly… and he definitely wouldn’t be able to fight with just his hearing to rely on. 

Now Tech wished he had the force. He’d heard tell of Jedi who learned to see through the force, but that wasn’t in the cards for a mere clone. The Kaminoans seemed certain that the ability to wield the force could not be cloned, and as far as Tech was aware there was no reason NOT to trust their knowledge there. After all, cloning was their expertise. 

As she continues with the health check, she notices his demeanor falling again - he’s so used to being able to see the world around him. 

In an effort to both cheer him up and bring in their other resident expert in modifications to living beings, she calls Echo back into the room. As it stands, they do have a lot of similar mods now. She asks Echo a few questions about various attachments now adorning Tech as they run diagnostics and make sure everything is interfacing with Tech’s own body in ways that won’t do more damage than good. 

As they work, they place Tech’s fingers on each mod so he can “see” it, warning him of buttons and asking questions about what he can control. 

“Echo, does this data port look familiar to you?” She is working on a mod behind Tech’s ear at the base of his skull. 

Tech lifts his hand from his lap “Show me.” 

She obliges and gently places his fingers on the port. Meanwhile her fingers drift off the metal and settle ever so gently on Tech’s own skin, remaining near the piece she is working on. 

Tech twitches. 

She quickly pulls her hand away. “Sorry, I know my hands got cold again.” 

“It is quite alright, I was simply not expecting it,” Tech just hopes she misses the blush on his cheeks. He’s doing everything he can to keep his heart rate down too. He’d quite enjoyed her touch actually. Gentle and soft, despite the well-calloused fingers from years of working on wiring and machinery and armor. 

But it wasn’t just that. Tech was learning all sorts of things about the human body he had never even considered before today. One of which, is that there seems to be an erogenous zone just beneath the ear. Right where her fingers had so gently brushed. The softness of her touch had sent a spark through his veins and a shiver down his spine. Truth be told, that was why Tech had flinched, not the temperature of her hands. But he needed more data, not to mention time, in order to prove whether it was simply the long-lasting effect of whatever drugs Hemlock had used on Tech, before he even came close to admitting the real reason why to anyone. 

Unbenounced to Tech, Echo had noticed. Echo knew knew what it looked like when Tech flinched when he was startled. And the way Tech has straightened up instead of shifting away like he usually did looked a hell of a lot more like an aroused shiver to him. So a mind like Tech’s could be aroused after all. But Echo also needed solid proof before he’d believe it. And he was standing next to a very attractive woman. Afterall, the man was a Domino. So, naturally, there was one way to get more information quickly. He would flirt with her as the conversation continued, and watch Tech’s reaction. 

“I wish I could see the port,” Tech’s voice is quiet, “I cannot quite tell what it is with just touch.” 

“Yeah, it’s quite a small port and it’s recessed into the panel a bit.” Echo answers, no hint of mischief in his tone. Fives and Rex hadn’t nicknamed him ‘silver tongue’ for nothing. 

“Hmm, I swear I’ve seen a cable with that end on it around here somewhere…” Her thought trails off as she looks around. “Any chance you remember where we should look to find a plethora of cables we could try, Tech?” 

“If I could see my surroundings, I could probably think of the many places I keep assorted cables, but I do not know how things have been reorganized or shifted around since I was last on the ship…” Tech’s voice trails off with a sigh. 

The room falls quiet for a moment. Tech can hear them rummaging around. He never thought losing the ability to see would affect him so much. In fact, he never really thought about losing his sight at all. His mind was not made to process emotions well, in point of fact it was made with the intent of avoiding the cumbersome ordeal of emotions so that logic would drive him in stressful situations. But even the Kaminoans couldn’t remove all the human pieces, so Tech still had emotions… he slouched forward, resting his elbows on his knees and hung his head. 

Just a glimpse would be all he would need. He hadn’t realized just how dependent on sight his life was. No matter what happened, whether they were able to get him a prosthetic eye, like Wreckers, or whether they could not, he would make a point of learning how to cope in a world where he could not see, just in case. But for now, he was living in a world of VERY blurry shapes. He sighed heavily. 

“I know,” her voice piped up from right beside Tech. He hadn’t realized she was still right next to him. He turned towards her, though it wasn’t like he could SEE her. He suppressed another sigh. And felt a light touch rest on his shoulder where a soft, very familiar material was draped over his arm; his blacks. He reached up for his shirt and she placed it in his hand. 

“I know. It’s hard to lose a sense that you had previously depended on so much. We will find a way to get some of your sight back. We can also find other ways so you don’t have to feel so dependent on seeing the world around you, if that would help?” 

Tech nodded, “Thank you,” he replied quietly, placing a hand over hers on his shoulder. “And, for the record, your hands are not that cold.” 

“Oh,” her voice took on a teasing tone, “so they are a little cold, huh?” She nudged him with the hint of a laugh in the air between them. 

He let out a little chuckle too. Tech found himself unknowingly leaning into her touch a bit. He couldn’t see, but he could feel - touch as well as emotions. He’d learned that much from his interactions today. 

But the happiness on his features quickly faded, the weight of his current predicament too great to allow simple distractions to last for long. 

“Maybe you don’t need to see it or touch it to figure this out. What do you feel?” Her voice dragged his wandering mind back to the real world. 

“WhAt?” Tech’s heart raced. Had she already figured out he liked her touch? Had he been that obvious? Internally, Tech went into panic mode. Externally, he did his best to keep his cool, like he always did. 

“Can you access the port and tell us what kind of data it is programmed to receive?” She asked. 

“Ah, excellent idea,” he replied, cool and nonchalant. Of course that was what she had meant, Tech’s panic subsided. He put his shirt back on and took a moment to search for the device driver in his operating system. 

“It seems to be set up to take in all media types: text files, binary files, audio and video files, a wide variety of map files, anything a typical datapad can handle.” 

“WAIT!” Her voice was laced with a revelation. 

Tech jumped at the excitement in her voice, and he could hear Echo stop his rummaging. He had likely stopped to turn and look at her. 

“What is it, Gorgeous?” A teasing smirk graced Echo’s features as he looks at her, watching Tech in his peripheral vision, knowing full well Tech can’t see the look on his face, “another useful factoid on the tip of your tongue?” 

She laughed. Tech wished he could tell if she had also smiled at Echo or not. She likely had. It was a fairly common reaction when someone was flir—Wait! Was Echo flirting with her? Tech found himself getting angry. Illogical, he barely knew her! But he did like her touch, as well as her demeanor, not to mention her wit! She was kind, gentle, and had so far proven to be his equal in mind. She had, as Hunter described it, been the one to sift through Tech’s notes and make sense of them, and figured out he was still alive. He felt like he owed her his life as much as he owed it to his brothers. 

And yet the way Echo had called her ‘gorgeous’, and the ease with which they communicated in half-formed sentences while searching the room, as well as the shared experiences implied by the story earlier, would suggest they had known each other for quite a while. 

We’re they partners? And if so, in what sense of the word? Had he finally found his equal in mind, the kind of person he’d finally allowed himself to dream of having as a partner, only to discover that her heart had already been given away to someone else? Tech desperately hoped that was not the case. Though, if it was, Echo was a lucky man indeed. 

Tech was lost in his thoughts, his mind racing away in a split second, missing that he had not hidden the pinch of his brow when Echo called her ‘Gorgeous’. Echo took it to mean that Tech was upset that he couldn’t even see her face. 

“Video files! Tech! You brilliant man! You already solved it!” She exclaimed. 

“Pardon?” Tech was confused. He wasn’t holding anything. He hadn’t been fiddling with anything had he? 

“Where are the goggles?” He could hear her excitedly shuffling around him. 

“Goggles won't do much, I’d need ey—“ he stopped, realizing exactly where she was going with this. “My recording device! Do you think you could make it into a prosthetic eye? I could provide instructions, if need be.” 

“First, let’s just see if this is gonna work. Ah HA! Here they are! Echo, do you remember where we put the cable for them?” 

“Yeah. That I kept safe. It’s over here,” Echo’s footsteps walked past Tech, towards Echo’s special spot where he kept his important belongings. So that much had stayed constant during Tech’s leave of absence. 

“Okay,” she started, again at Tech’s side. “I repaired your recording device, and Echo made sure there’s no trace of the Empire’s meddling left on it. So, in theory, all we have to do is plug it in. Tell me if something doesn’t feel right, and we will unplug immediately and start a diagnostic. Okay?” 

“Excellent,” Tech replied. “However, if anything goes wrong, I suggest you have a mild sedative on hand to knock me out, and a set of cuffs ready just in case the Empire tries to take my mind back.” 

She sighed, Tech felt a new touch on his shoulder. Definitely her touch, but not like a touch he’d felt before. Echo could be heard retrieving the necessary preparations in the background, while Tech sorted out this new feeling. Then her hair brushed his bicep. She was resting her forehead on his shoulder! She laughed quietly. 

“You really do think of everything don’t you?” She’d said it quietly, so quietly it was likely that Echo couldn't hear exactly what she had said. 

“It is wise to be prepared,” Tech could feel his finger rising to accentuate his point, automatically. 

“Yes, but I seriously hope we don’t have to use them,” she muttered quietly, to him alone.  

“As do I,” He agreed. 

Echo returned with the cable and Tech’s suggested in-case-of’s. 

Tech sat there, waiting. Nervousness painting his features. He might be able to see again, momentarily! And if he did, would it be enough to make him useful again until he could teach himself alternative methods? Would it be enough to allow him to continue to participate in their chaotic lifestyle? Questions danced around his mind. But he took a deep breath and refocused himself on the here and now, on the senses he could still use. 

He could tell that she now stood side-by-side with Echo. Echo in front of Tech, while she returned to her post at Tech’s side. He tilted his head to give her better access to the data port there. 

“Let me take the remaining fragments out of the lenses. Maker, why didn’t we do that ages ago? Why did we let this sit here with shards of transparisteel in it?” She muttered. 

Tech noted that she seemed nervous too, though he was not sure why. He could hear the pieces entering the waste receptacle as she removed them one by one. Tech waited patiently, doing his best not to tap his foot. He needed to stim, but he didn’t want it to come across as impatience. 

“It’s okay if you need to stim, Tech,” she must have noticed what he was doing. “I understand this is a big moment, if you need to move to process it, don’t stop on my account.” 

Tech let a small smile cross his features, as he let out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding. “Thank you,” he said to the floor. He took a deep breath to let his nerves around her out - it was actually sort of helpful that he couldn't see her yet, it became significantly easier to let go when he was only vaguely aware of her presence - and allowed his foot to resume its rhythmic tapping. 

“Alright, you ready?” She asked. 

Tech nodded. “Ready when you are.”

“I’m going to put your goggles on you first, over the bandages.They’re gonna be very loose though, we don’t need it creating more injuries while these heal. You adjust them as needed so it feels comfortable, then when you’re ready, I’ll plug it in. I don’t know how it’s going to interface with your operating system, but I bet Echo can give you some tips on that if he hasn’t already. He’s standing right in front of you so he will be the first thing you see. Okay?” 

“Understood.” Tech held as still as he could, his anticipation palpable. 

“Here goes. Goggles going on…” 

He felt the band slip over his head, and reached up to adjust it as she had suggested. His fingers brushed over hers. He felt that new spark again, racing from the point of contact between their hands to his core. But right now he was too excited to see again. He pushed the spark to the side, hoping he would have time to focus on that later. 

“Ready to receive data,” he told her, closing his one good eye to avoid the juxtaposition of one blurry and one clear image confusing his brain. 

“Plugging in… there.” 

She and Echo watched the red light on the side of Tech’s goggles blink to life, and then go a steady red. 

Tech remained still for a moment. 

She and Echo exchanged hopeful glances. 

Then, Tech’s brows rose and his chin lifted, pointing the camera up, towards Echo’s face. 

“Hello, Echo,” Tech chirped, relieved to have some sight to work with again. Though this new perspective - from the side of his face - would take some getting used to. 

For the first time in a while, Echo smiled. “Hello Tech! Good to have you back, ol’ buddy!” 

Tech looked slowly down at his lap, and raised his hands, getting adjusted to the side-shifted perspective. 

Next to Tech, she giggled. “Oh you brilliant mind, you!” And she pressed a quick kiss to Tech’s temple. 

As heat rose to the surface of Tech’s cheeks, he was suddenly struck by the fact that he still hadn’t seen her face. He didn’t know why that made him nervous though. 

Echo laughed. Her surprise kiss to Tech had caught even him off guard. 

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t even think about it, I just did it. Was that okay? I’m sorry if I overstepped!” She babbled. 

Tech opened his mouth to answer, but found his mind vacant of any coherent sentences. It was all he could do to try to refocus on his surroundings to ground himself once again. 

So he focused on Echo, who was still standing in front of him. It had been a while since Tech had seen Echo laugh like this. And their reactions would clearly indicate that Echo and Spitfire were clearly not ‘together’ as his brothers would say. But the nerves quickly took over Tech’s mind again as he realized she had withdrawn her touch from him while she waited for his answer. He did his best to reacquire his ability to speak. 

“It is quite alright. I do not mind,” Tech replied. Odds were, he was not hiding the warmth in his face now. He had completely lost control of it. Oh well, at least it was appropriate in such a situation. And it gave him an excuse to look at her. 

Slowly, so that his new perspective wouldn’t make his stomach spin like his head currently was from her kiss, he turned to look at her, hoping his naturally emotionless exterior would swoop in and save him from further embarrassment. 

But it seemed his subconscious wanted to make him suffer today. It took extra effort to hide his reaction. Echo was right. She was gorgeous. Tech had known she was smart, at least as intelligent as he was if he had to wager a guess. He was well aware that he liked the gentleness of her touch. And he had known that she had a pretty voice, and an even prettier laugh. But she was also very physically attractive. Especially with the flustered expression currently adorning her face as she bit her lip and looked nervously at him. 

Once again, Tech didn’t have words, he just looked at her. He didn’t know what he expected, all he knew was that her natural beauty threw him off guard. 

Beside them, Echo was trying to contain his laughter; though admittedly, he wasn’t trying that hard. 

“Brother, you’re staring,” Echo chortled, shaking Tech’s shoulder to snap him out of it. 

Tech started and snapped his gaze back to Echo. Too fast. He could feel the nausea rising in his gut. He tried to close his eyes and then remembered his real eye was closed and this new ‘eye’ didn’t have eyelids. He got the feeling his face was likely draining of color. 

“You okay?” Concern laced her voice. 

“Unplug,” Tech managed, swallowing hard, “please.” 

She hurriedly unplugged the device. “What’s up, everything okay?” 

Tech sat still and breathed for a moment. Well, all things considered, it does make sense that a new point of view would be disorienting. However, since they had decided so quickly to try this, it was not an outcome he had yet thought through. 

One more swallow and a long deep breath and he was ready to speak again. “Yes. Thank you for unplugging quickly. The point of view of my recording device is a little too far to one side. I moved too quickly, and became disoriented and slightly nauseous.” 

Next to Tech, Echo was not even bothering to hold in his laughter anymore. 

Hunter appeared in the doorway, the laughter having drawn his attention from the cockpit, as Echo piped up, “Of all the things I thought might happen when we got out your goggles, ‘Tech getting distracted by a beautiful woman, and then allowing his own jumpiness to make himself sick’ was certainly not on the list.” He laughed harder, “I can’t wait to tell Rex this story.” Now Hunter was laughing too. 

Tech’s cheeks blazed with heat. 

“Are you sure it wasn’t the fact that I’m NOT actually attractive that made him sick, Echo?” 

The room fell silent. 

“WHAT!” Hunter and Echo’s voices suddenly filled the ship’s hold, reverberating off the durasteel walls. 

“Why would you think that?” Hunter asked. 

“Don’t coddle me Hunter, I’m used to it.” 

Hunter and Echo sat there fishing for words like fish out of water. Their mouths opened and closed, but no sound came out. 

Tech could hear only silence in answer. That was not okay. Why weren’t his brother’s saying something? No matter, Tech would do his best to remedy the issue. 

“Then allow me to put your concerns to rest,” Tech butted in, “For I AM certain that it was my startled reaction to Echo bringing me out of my reverie. I was indeed distracted by your beauty. I have rarely ever encountered an individual of your caliber. I must admit, while the first thing I noticed about you was your voice, it was your mind that truly caught my attention. But now that I have seen your face, I can confirm that you are indeed quite a stunning woman as well.” 

She spluttered for a moment, struggling to find words of any sort. “I… well… umm……… thank you, Tech. That’s… that’s very sweet of you.” She rested her hand on his shoulder again, and this time Tech happily reached up and placed his over hers. 

“He’s right, you know. I don’t call just anyone Gorgeous,” Echo flirted. Tech could hear Echo moving towards her, and desperately wished he could see what they were doing. But wait, that could work! Though he didn’t quite know why he was so desperate to keep Echo from flirting with her - was this jealousy? All he knew was that he was going to act on it regardless. 

“Will you, um,” Tech pointed to the side of his head. “I would like to see the rest of my brothers now,” he finished while she reconnected the cord. “We will have to find ways to do this differently in the future, but for now, at least I am not totally in the dark.” 

Off to the side now, Echo chuckled quietly to himself. So he had been proven right. Tech was already quite taken with her. 

“I’ll go get the others then,” Echo volunteered to give them a moment to themselves, already heading towards the cockpit. 

Tech sat still for a moment, and she watched the light blink and go steady again. And then Tech’s hand reached to the side, towards her. She knew he could not see her where she was standing, but it surprised her when he found her hand and gently pulled her in front of him, so he could look up at her again. 

“Yes.” Tech said, eyes wide. “You are indeed quite attractive, My Dear. Now, if only I could quantify that for you to prove it.” He smirked, “perhaps I can, though it will take time and deliberation to develop a good system. You are not something that can be taken lightly.” 

The surprise on her face pleased him. But his emotions were becoming very confusing for his analytical mind. He felt a rush at having so successfully complimented her on his first try. But he also felt nervous that he wouldn’t be able to best that compliment. And he felt ‘screwed’ as Wrecker would describe it… there was no way to avoid falling for this woman. But somehow, knowing that he was fated to fall for her was… thrilling? Emotions were complicated… and not at all logical… and so rarely ever came one at a time anymore. but alas, those were issues for later, he reminded himself again. Right now, he wanted to see his brothers, and sister! 

“My Dear,” he practically purred, he could see Hunter raising his eyebrows at him in the doorway behind her, “Would you help me to stand up slowly so that I can look my brothers in the eye when I greet them?” 

“You might want to wait on that one,” Hunter was now leaning against the wall just outside the main room, looking over his shoulder towards the copilot's seat as a blur of blonde dashed out ahead of Wrecker, Echo, and Crosshair. 

The woman stepped aside as the blonde dart zipped in for a hug. 

“Tech! I still can’t believe you’re alive!” Her voice was muffled as she refused to raise her head from his chest to speak. “Echo said you can sorta see now?” She uncurled herself from his chest and backed up so she could see his face. “Ooooh! Are you using the recording device on your goggles as your new eyes?” She asked. She seemed impressed. 

“Indeed. Good observation, Omega.” 

“COOL!” 

Tech couldn’t help but smile. Behind her, Hunter’s grin was the biggest of them all. Though Wrecker’s teary one might surpass that quickly. 

“Tech!” Wrecker blubbered from over Omega’s shoulder, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you outta the railcar fast enough. If I had, maybe you wouldn't be dealing with this now.” 

“Wrecker, there was nothing you could have done. But it does not matter. I am here now, and we are finding solutions, just like we always do.” Tech’s voice was matter of fact, as always, but in a way meant to reassure Wrecker. 

Wrecker’s tears subsided a bit, and he tilted his head to the side, realizing he was standing directly in front of Tech, but Tech’s new eye was off to one side. By tilting his head, he could more directly look his brother in the ‘eye’ so to speak. “Is it… like normal… or is it… offset?” He asked. 

His observation impressed Tech. 

“It is offset. So much so, that if I move too much or too quickly it will make me feel nauseated.” Tech explained. 

“So, no sudden movements?” Wrecker tucked his arms in, resisting the urge to hug his brother. 

“Correct.” 

“That’s why you were laughing earlier, right?” Hunter asked Echo. 

“Yeah,” Echo answered, taking the opportunity to fill Wrecker in, “he made himself woozy when I startled him because he got distracted by her.” Echo used his thumb to gesture at Spitfire. 

Wrecker smiled, and had been about to further Tech’s embarrassment when Crosshair stepped forward, and for a moment the room fell silent. 

“It does not look like they treated you well, Crosshair.” Tech observed. 

“You could say that,” Crosshair drawled.  

“I wish there was more I could have done to prevent that,” Tech spoke up again. “I was connected to the main system at the base, but it seems Hemlock did his research well, and learned what not to do from our mission to break Echo out of the Techno Union’s control. I suspect Spitfire already told you as much… In short, the effect on my end was that I could see you two, but I could do nothing to protect you.” 

Crosshair shrugged and looked away. He was surprised that Tech still wanted to protect him. After they all kept their blasters trained on him while he rescued Omega from the sinking wreckage on Kamino, he had thought he’d lost their trust forever. 

“However, I could access your record,” that earned a side eye from Crosshair as Tech continued. “I am sorry about Mayday. Though I am proud he was our brother too. I would have acted much the same as you, had I been there in your stead.” 

Crosshair retreated into himself, jaw clenched, but nodded subtly. 

The other’s exchanged glances, that name was new to them. Omega opened her mouth, questions on the tip of her tongue, but Hunter shook his head, and she fell silent, understanding that that meant that Crosshair was clearly not ready to talk about it. 

“Have you received the medical attention you need since returning to the ship?” Tech inquired. 

Crosshair nodded, doing his best not to show how grateful he was that Tech had diverted the topic at hand, but Tech’s observational nature noticed every detail. 

“Echo made me his nurse!” Wrecker chimed in. “Don’t feel bad waking me up for anything Cross, I’ve got ya!” 

Tech let a half smile sit on his lips. He was back home with his brothers and sister again. Everything was going to be okay. And there was a highly intelligent, highly attractive woman, whom he was willing to believe was flirting with him, if her sudden kiss to his temple earlier was anything to go off of.

Please don’t steal my work! I pour my heart into these so if you like it please reblog to share instead of reposting it!

A/N: Once again, just needed to get this part out there into the world. I've rewritten it so many times! Action sequences are really hard! But I found a way to describe enough of it to make sense, but not all of it so I don't have to come up with a full exfiltration plot worthy of our favorite nerd and his sadistic archnemesis. Someone commented that this seemed like a way to infodump my film theories, and you is 100% correct. They did Tech dirty, and I needed to fix it. Hehehe! So let's fix it! Time to free the inventive genius, the raincloud of angst, and the sunshine child!

Tech dividers: @/djarrex

Translations: Haran = hell (mando'a)

His world was dark. It was strange. He couldn’t see or feel anything. But he knew a lot. And he had his familiar routines. He liked routines. They made him feel useful and gave his life structure. Just like the algorithms he wrote all day long, long scripts of instructions for computers to process and provide him with all the data he needed! 

But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. Nevertheless, he must continue. That was his duty. That was what he was made to do. To keep going despite all odds, and to always find a way. That knowledge reassured him. As did his routines. His routines had become quite a lot like his favorite algorithms... Perhaps too much so... No, that couldn’t be. He was just paranoid because things were calm without the constant chaos of war. As long as his routines kept him and his brothers safe… brothers… his brothers! That was what was missing! No nagging reminders to “please stop fiddling and eat something and get some rest, you’ve backspaced frequently in the last half hour and it’s getting on Hunter’s nerves” from Echo. No roughhousing and horsing around from Wrecker. No dramatic sighs from Crosshair… 

Wait, that wasn’t entirely true. Somewhere in the distance, he was aware of Crosshair. And there was someone with him. Someone familiar. Small… and blonde… and… Tech knew those tears! But he couldn't place the rest of it. Knowing about them felt like a distant memory, but he knew it wasn’t. Those tears, Crosshair’s seething, quiet anger, those were happening in the present, not the past… but where? Where are they? And where was he? 

Somewhere amidst the confusion of his mind, he began to become aware of a warning klaxon alarm blaring far away. Something was happening. He could feel the adrenaline begin to surge. That meant something was coming and he had to get ready to protect those he cared about. Right now, that meant Crosshair and the little blonde one. 

Tech paused to take stock. He knew 3 things for certain, other than his name: 

1) Crosshair and a little blonde girl were nearby, and they were his family, 

2) something was happening, good or bad he didn’t know, but he did know that either way that meant, 

3) his family needed his protection, here and now… wherever here is… 

Slowly, more of his world began to percolate into the recesses of his mind, emerging from the darkness and beginning to take form around him. Though, they did not take physical form, he still could only see darkness, but he was starting to be able to hear and to feel things again. And smell. 

BO, this place smells like body odor. But somehow this smell of corn chippy socks and a desperate need to wash the carbon scoring and battle sweat off was very familiar to him. Like their barracks on Kamino… 

Wrecker! Wrecker was here! Wrecker would help Tech find his way back to his surroundings. That was something else he just innately knew. 

Tech added that to his list of certainties: 

Crosshair, Wrecker, and his sister were here, and they were his family. 

Something was happening, as evidenced by the alarm bells he was beginning to hear, which meant that, 

His family needed his protection, 

But first Tech needed Wrecker’s help to find his way back… 

But… back to what? Something was still missing. A lot was missing actually, but that would get overwhelming, so he focused on the last item on the list, hoping the rest would fall into place after he figured out where he was and what was happening. Which he needed Wrecker’s help for. So he focused on Wrecker. 

Sure enough, his brother’s booming voice reached Tech’s ears. Tech concentrated on it, trying to make out what Wrecker was saying. But things were happening too fast. And the voices blurred together. He was still certain Wrecker’s voice was among the noise, as was a building alarm going off, but there was something else too. Something in addition to Wrecker’s voice, and it had the patterns of language - a voice! He was pretty sure that’s what it was. They seemed to be helping Wrecker with something, giving instructions and Wrecker was following them. As they continued on, Tech could feel himself beginning to become conscious of his surroundings again, but he also felt his emotions spiking, and didn’t dare open his eyes yet. First he needed to use that same old trick he’d taught to Crosshair when he had a panic attack, to ground himself now and regain control of his emotions: the 5-4-3-2-1 method. Tech didn’t want to open his eyes yet. That had a tendency to trigger migraines. And there were so many things in his surroundings he couldn’t place yet. So instead he just focused on just putting names and senses to 5 things. 

Wrecker was here - Tech could smell him and hear him. 

An ally was here - Tech could hear their voice, and they were working with Wrecker, who clearly trusted them! 

Hmm, what else… 

The alarm had stopped! At least in this room it had been silenced. Must not have been long ago either, Wrecker was commenting on being able to hear his own thoughts again! Which meant that: 

Tech’s senses were catching up with the world, he was beginning to be able to hear the things Wrecker was saying! 

Tech sighed in relief, the world was coming back to him. In fact, the world seemed to be approaching rapidly. He could hear footsteps around him now. Heavy footfalls desperately trying to be careful as they treaded nervously across the room. Wrecker again! 

Wrecker’s footsteps approached. 

The voice that was not Wrecker’s spoke again. They seemed excited! Something about someone moving and reacting to his surroundings. Tech realized they must have been talking about himself! 

Tech tried to focus on his surroundings, but it was harder than he expected. 

The sound of finger’s snapping near the side of his face made him flinch. It was loud that close to his ears. 

“Oh good! I thought he passed out again!” Wrecker boomed nervously. 

“Give him time, Big Guy, he’s been through a lot,” answered the other voice. “He doesn’t seem to like loud right now.” 

Wrecker tried to make himself smaller, “Sorry, Tech!” He half whispered and half shouted. 

Tech still didn’t want to open his eyes. Between the loud noises - this must be what Hunter felt like when they were all being loud, he realized - and the fact that Wrecker was probably worried, he couldn’t face that just yet… Pun intended. 

Oh good! So his own special form of humor was still intact! Tech took a deep breath and rolled his head to the side, towards the voices that were now whispering. 

Ow. The movement made his head throb. Specifically the back of his head, which had been resting against what now felt like a very hard surface. Cool to the touch. Probably metal of some kind. Though there was a little fragment of cushioning, beyond that of just his own hair. Probably a makeshift medbay. 

One more deep breath and Tech was ready to have a look around. He opened his eyes… hmm, strange, that didn’t seem to work. He tried again, hand automatically reaching for his face as he did so. But someone caught his hand. 

“No, don’t touch the bandages,” Wrecker whispered. 

“It’s okay Wreck. Tech, we don’t have your goggles,” the unfamiliar voice approached, “so you won’t be able to see your surroundings much. And… lemme have his hand Wrecker… you will only be able to see a little out of one eye. I’m going to put your hand on the edge that’s near your nose, okay?” Tech became aware of small, clammy fingers wrapping gently around his own, as the voice continued.“Be gentle and go slow. You’ve been out for at least a few days by the looks of things and you’ve got some pretty extensive mods now, though a new eye was apparently not among them. Just the necessities to keep you functioning as a computer for Hemlock. There’s a probably a lot to unpack in those details. Let’s get back to that in a minute. Just focus on feeling yourself and your surroundings right now.” And with that the voice placed Tech’s hand on the wrappings around his head. 

He traced them over one eye, and around his head. Then he tried to turn his head again. Once again it sent his mind reeling. Tech swallowed hard, trying to keep his stomach from disobeying him. 

“Wreck, put your hand under his head. The fact that they didn’t bother to give him a pillow doesn’t seem to be helping him much.” 

So his discomfort must be visible. Tech wondered if he “looked green” as Crosshair had once described him when he had nearly lost his lunch after a particularly bad day of training. 

Wrecker gently lifted Tech’s head a fraction and slipped his much softer hand beneath it. “Better?” 

“Thank you,” Tech mumbled. His voice felt horse. It must have been a while since he’d used it. This seemed to agree with the stranger’s sentiment, indicating that he had indeed been unconscious for several days, minimum. 

Slowly, the colors of the room slowed down and stopped swimming around his head. He recognized Wrecker’s large shapes of dark armor, and could see the unfamiliar shapes of the stranger’s armor next to him. Though all he could see was the person’s rough size, no details. 

“Sit up… please,” it took less effort to talk this time around. Progress! Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. 

“You got it!” Wrecker whisper-shouted, helping Tech prop himself up. “Is he okay? Why is it taking so long to get him up?” Wrecker had never been good at being discreet and quiet when it came to worrying over his brothers. 

By the looks of things, the dark blobs that he knew to be Wrecker and co. shifted to exchange glances, but said nothing. 

“I’m going to touch your face a little, Tech. You’re a little pink and I need to make sure you’re stable. Okay?” 

“Wait,” Tech needed more information first, this person was still a stranger. Tech knew he needed to trust his medic, but without the ability to see what his medic was doing that was a lot harder to do, “Who are you?”

“My apologies! Call me Spitfire! Pilot and strategist.” The voice answered. 

“She’s Mandalorian!” Wrecker added. Tech zeroed in on the use of identifying pronouns. 

She laughed. “Yes, and I’ll gladly tell you more after we get you out of here—” Tech’s grip on the world around him began to slip again as his head throbbed. 

Spitfire’s voice close to his ear, but gentle and quiet, dragged him back to the real world again. “I need to make sure you’re stable, I’m going to touch you okay?” 

“Kay,” Tech spoke through gritted teeth. He inhaled quickly as her fingers found his temple. Cold. Her fingers were still cold. Then he found himself automatically relaxing into her gentle touch. The cold felt good, and made the pain of the headache a little more bearable. She chuckled, likely reacting to the way he leaned into her cold fingers. And he felt her fingers run through a semi-familiar check up checklist as they danced across his skin: forehead for a fever test, side of his neck to check for an irregular pulse, tilting his chin up and bringing out a flashlight. She moved quickly but thoroughly, though her checklist was slightly different than the algorithm he’d developed. 

He could feel Wrecker tensing next to him. Wrecker never did like medical exams, though he also had a tendency to use himself as a sentient shield. Apparently Spitfire had noticed Wrecker’s disposition too. 

“He’s okay, Big Guy. Seems like it’s mostly just a nasty headache,” she began addressing Tech more directly, explaining the results of her medical checks. “Your eyes react like normal, and your words aren’t slurred, so no lasting effects of a concussion. Though without your glasses and with the wraps partially over one ear, things might be a little disorienting, and you may still have had a concussion, though you’re okay for now. You’re a little warm, but not warm enough to indicate a fever, so it will likely go away quickly and is probably the result of finally being upright and conscious with adrenaline pumping for the first time in a while. You should also know they seem to have embedded some circuitry in you. You were wired into the central computer. Though Hemlock seems to have learned more than I’d like from Echo’s breakout. Looked like you could only access limited information but no building codes nor structural plans or anything like that?” 

“Affirmative. Perhaps even more restricted than that. I was only vaguely aware of Crosshair and Omega’s existence, but could barely access any of my own memories, beyond the things I instinctively knew. I’d surmise… mmmm… mmmmaybe not… headache…” Tech gingerly massaged the pressure points along his temples, careful around the bandages. 

“Without knowing more about what specifically was altered, and what they used to keep you unconscious, I am hesitant to give you any medication. We don’t know what effect it will have when it mixes with whatever else is in your system right now. You also need time for your vitals to exist at this new stable conscious state for a little while before we introduce anything new. I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to keep your brothers safe. Okay?” 

Tech nodded a tiny bit. “The others? Where?” 

Wrecker gave her a look. Clearly, speaking in partial phrases was not normal for Tech. The pain must have been getting to him. 

“I think you know the answer to that,” her voice was quiet and quizzical. This was clearly another test - a concussion test to see what he remembered. Tech tried to look up at the dark shape he knew was this Spitfire person. 

“Crosshair, Omega?” He tries. 

“That’s right,” she reassures. “We’ll meet up with them on the way out.” 

Tech’s world starts to swim. 

“It’s okay Genius, Wrecker’s got you. Take it easy.I’ll keep you and your family safe.” 

Tech could feel Wrecker’s arm slip around his shoulders, and lift him off the cold table and onto his own two feet. He managed to stay on his feet, though without Wrecker’s support that would have been a lot more difficult. 

Once again, Tech’s world shrank to the size of his own mind as he tried to find ways to combat the pain and stay conscious. There were moments when he was aware of his surroundings, and moments where he was only subconsciously aware, but through it all he managed to make his feet automatically shuffle forward with Wrecker. 

Here and there, scenes formed themselves around the brothers. 

Ping! Mandalorian was right! Tech would know the sound of blaster bolts bouncing off beskar anywhere. Based on the proximity of the sound, she was using her own beskar-clad body to shield both Tech and Wrecker. Tech could see flashes and fresh smudges of carbon scoring on the walls they passed and wondered how many of them had bounced off of her beskar first. 

Wrecker made a comment about wanting beskar of his own. Something about his shoulder aching just watching the blast bounce off of her. Tech silently agreed with him. That sounded like a smart idea. If only it was easier to come by. He’d have insisted his brothers all acquire it ages ago. Especially since even when working for the Republic, they seemed to be the ones to get all the reckless jobs. 

Then Spitfire is in front of them, popping open a panel in the extensive, white wall beside them. Sparks fly and wires now dangle from the opening in the wall. A door Tech had not been aware of before, slid open. On the other side were familiar voices and shapes. The rest of his brothers, and a small blonde blur that darted for his waist. Omega. 

He could feel her shaking, and was vaguely aware that his hip was being used as a tissue for those all too familiar tears. He reached down with his free hand and patted the blonde locks. Her arms relaxed a little, but remained wrapped tightly around his waist. 

Crosshair approached, and knelt by Omega, calming her further. Tech didn’t need to be able to see much to know Hunter was puffing out his chest with pride for their brother. Speaking of, Hunter was in front of Tech now. He seemed to be fussing over something, probably the way Tech seemed only partially conscious. Tech tried to pull himself together to answer, but was vaguely aware of only being able to groan and mumble a little. Spitfire gave what was apparently enough of an answer that Hunter backed off a bit, though by the way he continued to hover nearby, Tech could tell he was still worried. Tech did his best to focus on his surroundings and bring himself back to the present moment, for the sake of Hunter’s nerves. 

The slightly smaller armoured shape that he knew to be Spitfire was back in Tech’s line of sight. She seemed to be fiddling with a long, thin item in her hands, which she then held out towards Crosshair. Tech concluded she must have been modifying one of her own blasters into sniper configuration for his brother. 

Crosshair seemed to finally acknowledge the woman. 

“Who are you?” He snarls at her, but accepts the proffered weapon. 

Echo appears at Tech’s side, “She’s basically just like him,” Echo pats Tech's shoulder, careful to be gentle, “except female… and cute.” The Domino Twin in Echo breaking the tension in the room before he continues on, “you sure you’re okay, Crosshair?” 

Crosshair grumbles and glares, but says no audible words. 

“He’s grumpy. He’s fine.” Hunter’s voice! His vocal patterns indicated he was somewhere between annoyed and bemused. “You okay, Tech?” Clearly he was aware that Tech was once again in tune with his surroundings. 

“I have had a constant headache since regaining consciousness, but I am otherwise in a suitable state to continue, so long as I retain vertical support during our exfiltration.” 

“What do ya know, long-winded, highly-detailed, but complete sentences. He’ll be okay too,” Echo muses. 

Someone pats Tech’s shoulder rather roughly this time, and his head pulses again. Tech closes his eyes, he wants to hold his breath at the sudden pain, but knows that won’t help, so instead he focuses on square breathing. To be honest, it is mostly just an attempt to distract himself from the pain and the chaos with a familiar pattern than anything else. While letting Wrecker guide his feet. 

Breathe in to the slow count of 4…

hold to the same slow count of 4…

whole breath out in the count of 4… 

hold to the count of 4, repeat…

After a few iterations, Tech switches back to normal breathing patterns, and then gets jarred back to reality when it suddenly gets loud and he can feel them getting bumped around. Tech opens his eyes again and is struck by the amount of clone voices and the fact that these clones are not fighting against Clone Force 99. Tech looks to Wrecker, confused. 

“We let ‘em all out!” Wrecker booms. “Good ‘ol Cap said he couldn’t leave a job like this half done! They are brothers too, after all.” 

Tech nods, and returns to trying to fend off the headache that is threatening to become a migraine if he’s not careful. Especially with all this new chaos alongside them. 

As they press on, Tech becomes aware of a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. In an attempt to distract himself from the pain in his head, he tries his best to untangle it via the limited data available to him right now. If only he could see! There were always so many clues in places like this, if only he could observe them! 

Suddenly, the start of an answer begins to emerge, and he surfaces from the recesses of his own mind. They’ve been standing still for too long, likely at a control console. Tech has a strange feeling of deja vu, though he’s not entirely sure why, but it definitely has something to do with Crosshair. Without warning the answer dawns on him, as images of Crosshair, alone, collapsing near a control console very much like this one makes it way to the forefront of his mind: they are walking into a trap! 

“This is undoubtedly a trap!” Tech exclaims, finger raised to emphasize his point. 

“We know,” Hunter speaks loud enough the group can hear him, but soft enough any surveillance equipment would struggle. “We sprung it intentionally, it was the only way to get you 3 out.” 

“Yes!” Spitfire seems happy about that, and Tech is grateful when she launches into an explanation of why. “Hemlock made sure that springing it was inevitable. Which meant the part of the plan that really mattered was the part that came after. However, there is no way he could have predicted a Mandalorian on the extraction team, nor my specific skillset, even if he did entertain the idea of you lot teaming up with a Mandalorian. Therefore, my skills represented a wildcard that we could not reveal to him until after we had sprung the trap!” She takes a breath, ready to continue on, but Crosshair gets there first. 

Acknowledging Echo’s earlier comment by looking directly at him, Crosshair addresses the group. “This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them!” 

“You got that right!” Wrecker laughs. 

Crosshair sighs. “So how do you usually get out of the big messes you make now?” exasperation and a longing to have been with them dripping from every word. 

“We don’t,” to everyone’s surprise, it’s Omega’s voice that answers, “we make a bigger mess that cancels out the first one!” 

Tech can tell Hunter’s helmet is turning slowly towards Omega, Hunter’s hands making a ‘hey!’ gesture. This must be the expression Omega had once described to Tech as a “sarcastically offended Dad face”, based on her laughter. It was good to hear such a happy sound again. 

Tech wonders how long it has been since she had laughed like that. Which, in turn, prompts another question: just how long the 3 of them have been stuck here? Tech turns his mind inwards for a moment. He knows Omega arrived not long after he did. He saw her arrive at Crosshair’s cell via security camera feed. He remembered Hemlock’s voice telling him his effort to protect his family was in vain, that she was all that was left, but he was glad he had not believed Hemlock. His family was clearly alive now. But no matter how hard he tries, there’s no sense of time attached to all the memories after the fall… Spitfire was right. Hemlock had learned a lot from Echo’s escape, and had made sure to keep Tech disconnected and in the dark. It felt like everything the sadistic ‘doctor’ had done was as poisonous as his name implied. Tech wondered if the name ‘Hemlock’ was even the man’s given name. It fit him far too well to be a coincidence. 

Once again loud noises draw Tech from his revelations. 

“Oh look!” Echo’s voice is the first thing Tech hear’s clearly. Echo is clearly amused, “they’re lining up for us!” 

“They’re excited,” Wrecker returns the jest. 

“On my belt.” Hunter’s hip shifts towards Crosshair as they stand in front of Wreck and Tech. Crosshair pulls something from Hunter’s utility belt, and Tech notices it glints in the light. Crosshair’s reflector pucks! Crosshair holds the puck in front of Tech’s nose, but does not address him. 

“Throw it to the end of the corridor,” he instructs, never taking his eyes off the targets. Something about the way he’d deliberately brandished it in front of Tech’s face indicated that this was Crosshair's attempt to keep Tech in the loop despite his lack of certain faculties at the moment. 

“You got it!” Wrecker reaches for the puck. 

Tech feels Echo’s arm shifting Tech’s weight off of Wrecker. He complies with the shift, wishing he could do more than just follow lamely like a lost massiff puppy. Though it was comforting to hear his brother’s banter pick up like nothing had changed, and he was grateful for Crosshair’s silent efforts to keep him in the loop. 

With a single shot from Crosshair, the corridor falls eerily quiet. Crosshair turns to Hunter, Tech can only guess that he’s likely raising his eyebrows to ask when that “bigger mess” is coming into play. 

There’s a hissing sound, and the hallway begins to fill with something foggy from the grates in the ceiling. 

Crosshair points up. “That’s a trap. Hemlock is immune.” 

Hunter tosses something to Crosshair and Spitfire from his pack, and then extracts 1 more, turning to Omega. 

Spitfire approaches Tech with the item, “respiratory mask!” She explains, placing it over his nose and mouth. “They took your helmet, but we’ll build you a new one,” these words are only loud enough that Tech can hear them. And they make a small smile cross his lips for a moment, between the surges of pain in his head. 

Tech zones out again, mind jumping between thoughts with little to no consistency. It seems likely that he is also still a little loopy from whatever they used to keep him unconscious and compliant, but his brothers and Spitfire have everything covered for the time being. He can let his mind explore the various scenarios as long as he stays conscious during the exfiltration. 

It’s likely that the resurgence of the headaches is related to the toxin pouring from the ceiling. 

Hmm, more evidence that Hemlock is a chosen name and not a given one. Next time he won’t take such a clearly carefully selected name for granted. It’s almost like Hemlock wanted people to know what he was good at. 

If Tech had his gear he’d take notes. His gear. Tech wondered what Hemlock had done with his helmet… and his datapad… and his helmet… how much had the people here learned about him and his brothers, or had Tech’s own safety measures prevented them from learning anything? 

Had any of the data the Empire had retrieved from Tech’s own work gotten back to his brothers? Is that how they were able to find them? Endless questions… always endless questions… Tech made a mental note to ask Echo about it all later. Hunter too, but Echo was better at included the details Tech wanted in the first go around. 

A raucous but familiar giggle over the intercom breaks through the haze of the hallway that mirrored the haze in Tech’s mind. 

“Your turn 99’s! Ready or not, here I come!” 

Normally, a sentiment like that would have put Tech on high alert, but the voice that said it was one Tech knew he could trust with the lives of his brothers. Captain Gregor! Which meant that Captain Rex was also likely nearby, probably orchestrating the brothers that once clamored through the hallways with them. It was instances like this that showed how much Rex cared, determined to protect all their brothers. That was what assured Tech that Rex was a leader worthy of his title. 

Tech isn’t sure how much time passes, just that he is vaguely proud of Omega for something that seems to help neutralize the toxin descending from the ceiling and accumulating as a foggy drift at their feet. Tech watches it swirl as they start to move again. 

After a few moments as foggy as the clouds drifting around their ankles, Tech is aware that he was witnessed an explosion and is not standing anymore. That jolts him back to his senses. But what he finds is not what he expects to find. 

Echo and Wrecker seem to be sitting Tech on a soft bench. The calming of the chaos around them would suggest they are now safely out of Hemlock’s facility and onboard a ship of some kind. Tech puts a hand on the bench he sits on and feels around. A medbay bench. Probably a smart idea. Tech doubted he was “ship-shaped” anymore as Hunter had once described it. 

That new voice is again near Tech, but he knows his brothers are still nearby too. The voice says something about “might sting” and “hang in there”, and Tech feels a sharp pain in his neck. Tech flinches, sitting up straighter, and feels his senses once again tune into the world around him. This time with less effort on his part. 

“All aboard?” Gregor's voice rings out from the cockpit. Hunter’s still-blurry shape disappears in the direction of Gregor's voice. 

Tech even notices when the ship jumps to hyperspace! 

“Is that better?” Spitfire asks, turning back to him, one hand still on his cheek, but not so cold this time around. 

“Significantly,” Tech answers, the pain subsiding rapidly, “I take it you were able to successfully determine whether my modifications could handle standard migraine medication and administer it?” 

She laughs, “Yes, and it seems to have worked wonders. We were all worried about you there. You started to fade again after that last booby trap. How are you feeling now?” 

“I believe we made the jump to hyperspace a moment ago?” He asks. 

“Yes we did!” Spitfire answers. 

Wrecker cheers behind her. 

“Is there any chance you have been able to fabricate another pair of my goggles? I would like to see my environment.” 

“I’m afraid not. I’m glad you seem to remember you had your spare pair on you, though. But we’ve been a little more focused on finding you than making new lenses. Though, we have the frames, and I was able to locate your notes on your prescription on your datapad, so I’m sure we will be able to pull something together. For now, let’s get everyone patched up. We’re on our way to a secret medical facility, courtesy of the Alderaanean senators, but if we can give everyone a once over before we get there it will save time in the long run, and we will know for certain who needs first priority.” 

Behind her, raised voices begin to echo in the small cabin, naturally summoning Echo to calm them. 

“Crosshair! Hunter! Enough! Yes, we sold the 733. Yes, we are sorry. No, we didn’t have a choice. You know damn well Hunter wouldn’t have sold it without good reason, none of us would have. Haran [hell], he even sold me as a droid. Calm down. We’re all here. That’s what matters.” 

“Good to know being brothers matters so much to you,” Crosshair spits out, reluctant to give up his grudge. 

“I wasn’t gonna–” Hunger starts, continuing the argument in true brotherly fashion. 

“ENOUGH!” Echo interrupts, “Again, we have the whole squad back now. Can we just focus on that? I’m getting a headache just listening to you two.” 

“Family,” Omega’s voice is smaller than usual, but she still pipes up. 

“What?” Hunter asks. 

“Family. Echo said squad,” she turns to him, “but you meant family.” 

Echo smiles and kneels in front of her, “You’re right kid. I did mean family.” And he scoops her into a big hug. 

Tech releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding. His family is safe now. At least that checklist that had started amidst the darkness was now complete. He had found his way out of the darkness. He had his family back. And he and his family were all safe. He could relax and focus on other things now.

(Part 4)

Please don’t steal my work! I pour my heart into these so if you like it please reblog to share instead of reposting it!

Author's Notes:

Somehow, this came out from Hunter’s pov. Wasn’t exactly the way I’d planned it, and this might change in the next chapter, but I needed a way to illustrate how Hunter was struggling with losing two brothers and his little girl (he's 100% a girl dad now, no going back).

Also, this is totally self-indulgent. I always write she/her/reader's pov like it's me because that's what I know how to do. If I can write from the heart it's more genuine. Hope you guys are okay with that!

I like to make references to other fandoms and stuff when I write, hope you guys don’t mind that. There’s at least 1 blink-and-you-miss it Hamilton reference, among others… hehehe!

Side note, this was not beta'd. I tend to just crank stuff out because it's on my mind, and post it asap so I can get it off my chest. Please lemme know if there are typos and if you guys like it!

Tech dividers by @/djarrex!

She joins the team shortly after Tech and Omega are stolen from them. 

When the bad situation they were in got even worse, they ran to Rex, in need of a calm, collected, commanding presence that wasn’t in the grip of fresh losses to help them figure out what to do next. Rex brought them his best analyst, an old friend who quietly helped out in secret during the war, and now helped him rescue as many brothers as he could. 

Echo knew her. They came up with a few battle strategies together when he was with the 501st. He trusted her with his life. 

Hunter, who always held his trust in reserve to begin with, now trusted even less since Cid is the reason Omega is now in the clutches of the Empire. But Rex and Echo insisted, and he knew they were in dire straights and would not be able to rescue Crosshair and Omega (and Tech) on their own, especially not while their better judgment was clouded with so much pain. 

At first, she just helps AZI patch them up and keep an eye on them as they heal. Slowly, they begin to trust her a little more. As she brings them water so they don’t have to get up, and sits with and chats with Wrecker until he falls asleep, and helps Echo with his prostheses, and always makes a point to do everything quietly to go easy on Hunter’s senses. They appreciate how her effort says she cares.

Eventually they start letting her learn them a bit more. And they learn more about her. She’s an interesting mix. She’s somewhat neurodivergent like Tech - she can go on endless infodumps and loves to learn. But she also has moments where she exhibits what Tech once described to the as “neurotypical behaviors”. She jokes with the men and flirts with them when the time is right. She gets a lot of social cues, but she does miss a fair amount too. The boys learn why Tech describes his differences like a spectrum. 

Eventually, Hunter and Echo come to the realization that she is going to need notes, detailed notes, if they are going to find their lost siblings. They have all tried giving her as many notes as they can remember, but in order to do enough research to find them, she would need to know more about Crosshair and Omega, and no one took notes on everyone quite like Tech did. They decided to give her access to Tech’s notebook, if all 3 of them agree on it. So they confront Wrecker. He’s all in. He trusts her, despite Cid’s betrayal, his determination to see the best in people has hardly wavered. Anything she needs to help them get their brother’s back is fine with Wrecker. And he trusts that if both Hunter and Echo have come to the same conclusion, then it’s worth it. 

For days she sat reading his copious notes, it kept her quiet and distant from them - Hunter was grateful for that, he needed time to adjust to her presence He wasn’t used to being around a woman so often. She brought a different way of existing to the soldier’s lifestyle he was used to. 

Her habits and mindset was somewhat new to him. 

“It may seem like an enigma now, but there are clues everywhere. You just need to know where to look and how to read them” she had said when she began her quest to learn more about their fallen brother, lost brother, and stolen sister. 

He was just grateful he, Wrecker, and Echo didn’t have to re-live the pain watching that horrible moment all over again to try to get something out of it. 

One day she begins to surface from his notes. Hunter braces, he had gotten used to her presence like that, and didn’t think he was ready for the conversations about brother’s end that were certainly coming. 

“This passage here, about Omega… it doesn’t make sense, it’s not Tech’s words” 

“What do you mean?” Hunter peers over her shoulder “that’s him alright, watched him write that one myself shortly after we picked her up.” 

“Oh, that’s not what I meant, sorry… these words are phrased exactly the way he writes everything, his speech patterns, his grammatical ticks, he IS the one that physically wrote the words down, except one thing doesn't match his pattern: the scientific errors. The one thing he knew none of you could check.” 

“So, you’re saying that Tech tricked us?” Hunter’s annoyance is apparent in his tone. His temper was on a short fuse these days, but she understood why. 

“No! I’m saying he’s employing a handy psychology tactic here. Usually used only for one of two purposes: reassurance or manipulation, but it’s definitely the former.” You hold up a hand, knowing Hunter is read to interject and snatch Tech’s datapad away from you for implying Tech would ever deceive his brother’s and harm them. “I know, you watched him write it and he would clearly never hurt any of you intentionally. A later passage about his conversation with Omega about feelings clearly conveys that quite eloquently and explains how deeply he cares for each one of you, but I think he might be trying to protect you from the full truth here, at least until he knowns what it is. As I’m sure you noticed, almost everything he writes has a double meaning, if not a triple meaning.” 

Hunter’s eyes remain narrowed, but he’s quiet, waiting for the whole story before he makes any decisions. He was protective of his little family before, and that’s multiplied tenfold since Cid’s betrayal cost them so much. 

“This passage here uses the word “perfect copy” to describe Omega, but there’s a lot inherently incorrect about that from a scientific perspective, and Tech clearly knows that. Perfection is, technically speaking, unachievable. There’s always something that deviates from the original, just a little, especially when discussing the complexities of genetics. I’m no geneticist, but his notes from when you first met Omega states that according to his scan (the results of which are included in the notes), she bears the female genetic marker - two X allosomes, and no Y - and has since she was created, which in and of itself means that she cannot be a perfect copy of Django who was male at birth, and bears the same male genetic markers that you lot do - an XY allosome pair. Which means, his statement here that she is a “perfect copy” is incorrect and he clearly knows that… at one point he even goes on to describe how she displays more neurotypical traits like you boys, rather than his neurodivergent ones… (whispered) paternal traits indeed, you’re definitely a clone of Django, you shouldn't worry about that Tech... He could be referring to her as a ‘perfect child’, however, again, perfection is inhuman and totally impossible when referring to something as complex as a sentient being, so that’s also unlikely unfortunately, as sweet as it would be for him to describe her like that… Earlier he mentioned that Nala Se told Tarkin that there were 5 ‘genetically deviant clones’ and that that must include Omega because Echo is genetically a ‘Reg’…” 

She turns to face Hunter directly, “Tech knew you were reading this over his shoulder and had access to it. He’s doing his best to describe Omega in a way that will only fortify your protection of her, not because that would ever waver - he describes several times how your paternal instincts are very attached to her, and he is both certain and grateful that nothing could change that - but he does it because she is very important to something, some big secret thing the Kaminoans are doing, though I don’t think he knows what exactly…” she trails off, searching through the datapad for more as she thinks. 

Hunter is shocked, first by her analysis, second by how easily she read Tech, and third by the fact that he, Hunter, is starting to agree with her analysis. “But if they’re ‘not his words’ as you said… then whose words are they?” 

She’s silent for a moment, as she considered this, still scrolling back through Tech’s copious notes. Hunter is struck for a moment how Tech always seemed to write like he was running out of time… 

“I think… I think, based on the way he explains how you lot describe Omega when she’s asleep and your paternal instincts ‘truly appear’ as he puts it, and,” she emerges from Tech’s notes for a moment, and Hunter is struck by how she’s just like Tech “and from my personal experience around you lot… I think he’s using your own words as a way to reassure you. Again, a handy psychology trick when used by a kind hand.” she nervously dives back into Tech’s notes. Hunter notes how she seems to make an effort to not annoy him again. 

She continues with her thought as her mind races on “all of the words he uses to describe Omega have positive connotations, there’s no hidden negativity, which means his intentions are good and not manipulative.” 

She looks up, but doesn’t totally dissociate from the datapad this time, her eyes still glossy wand swirling with thoughts. She opens her mouth like she’s poised to say more, but worry crosses her features “I’m sorry, I’m rambling again. I’ll stop. I do that a lot, I know.” 

She looks around concerned, by this point both Echo and Wrecker have joined the conversation, but none of them can look at her right now. 

Hunter is the first to speak “don’t worry, we’re used to it, Tech does the same thing all the time… or… used to anyways.” 

She tenses a bit “understood, I’m sorry for your loss, I still intend to help you as much as I can. Loss like that is cruel, let’s see if we can get him back, yeah?” 

“Yeah” Hunter relaxes a tiny bit, but feels the sadness of loss settling in. He doesn’t believe Tech could have survived that fall. 

She dives back into the notes. There’s a moment of silence. She continues to read quietly, giving the men a change to exchange quiet glances, feeling better now that they might have someone like Tech, something familiar, who can help them find their family. They find comfort in the quiet as she continues to ponder his scribblings with a knitted brow for a few moments. 

Hunter breaks the silence. “I feel almost ashamed that none of us figured that out. He’s our brother. I guess we didn’t know him as well as we thought we did.” 

“It’s not your fault, Hunter. Same goes for you two,” she pats Echo and Wrecker. “Pain of loss can be blinding. You do know him well, but your own emotions got in the way. It helps to have an outside voice to help you see through the haze of emotions. Nothing wrong with asking for help. I’m  here to help in any way that I can.” 

Her attention shifts again, and she emerges from the datapad completely this time. The hand that clutches it falls to her lap as her eyes find Hunter’s, and he’s not surprised to find a new thought sparkling in them. 

“You said Hemlock gave you back his goggles, did he not?” 

“Yeah” Hunter’s hesitancy returned 

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to hurt any of you lot, either. I just need more information about the incident itself” 

Hunter sighs. 

“Did his goggles still have the recording device on them?”

“How did you know about that? None of us told you about that” 

“He includes many screenshots and videos from them in his notes” 

“Right. Sorry” 

“It’s okay. Hesitancy to trust is natural after being sold out like that, I understand. But please know that I just want to help you find your brothers and sister, they seem like good people, and this Tech fellow is clearly brilliant!” 

Hunter produces the goggles, recording device still attached. 

Echo chimes in “I checked for a recording from it, but scans said there’s nothing on it” 

“No backups? You’re telling me a man like Tech didn’t have backups of everything in a secure format? Is this not his backup datapad full of his notes I’m holding? I’m guessing that somewhere on here is a backup copy he fashioned himself that the Empire wouldn't be able to tamper with, one with a hidden access port - something the Imperials wouldn't know to look for since to them devices like this are usually only remotely accessed” 

She gently detaches the recording device from the goggles and inspects it carefully. The men gather around her and watch her with baited breath. Clearly the Empire did not remove it from the goggles, as there is still a fair amount of dirt on the side that had been next to the band of the goggles. As she gently brushes the dirt off, her finger nail finds the edge of something. Tracing it out, she finds a rectangle in the rubbery casing around the recording device, and gently pops it open. 

“Bingo” she whispers, as though a loud noise will shatter the moment. 

“I think I’m starting to agree with you” Hunter whispers in her ear, quiet enough that only she can hear. 

She inspects the port the silicone hatch revealed “I don’t suppose any of you lot have seen a cable that might fit this lying around somewhere?” 

They sit quietly for a moment, well aware Tech left cables for all sorts of things scattered everywhere. Each contemplating the most likely spot for Tech to keep an important cable like this, before Echo pipes up “I’m betting he’d keep a spare in his spare kit!” 

Wrecker launches out of his makeshift seat to grab the kit, and hands it to Hunter. “You better look for it, I don’t think he’d like me rummaging through his stuff… might break something…” he trails off, clearly sad. 

She pat’s the big guy on the arm and he sits back down, a little closer this time. Seeking her warmth for comfort. 

“He clearly loved and still loves you very much Wreck, even if he has his own way of showing it” 

Wrecker smiles, “thanks Y/N” 

Hunter produces several cords from Tech’s pack and holds them out. “One of these look like it might fit?” 

“Yes!”

Echo reaches for the other end of the cable “what does the other end look like?” She let’s him inspect it while she attaches the one end to the recording device. 

“This one goes here,” he plugs it into the console they sit next to. “Let’s see what he got as…. Let’s see what trail he left for us” 

As the recording comes up on the bigger screen, they all gasp. Most of the contents of the recording are going to be a difficult mess to untangle, but one thing is clear: Tech is very much ALIVE!!!

(Part 2)

A/N: Alrighty, this part feels like it's almost there but not quite, but I needed to just get it out so I can focus on the next part, or I will NEVER finish this story! Enjoy!

Tech dividers by @/djarrex

Translations: haran = hell (Mando'a) dank ferrik = the Star Wars equivalent of "oh fuck" or "damn it"

He’s alive! But dank ferrik, that looks like it hurt like haran [hell]! 

He’d managed to soften his fall a bit, and get out of the way of the railcar, but it was still a long way to fall, and he’d only been able to slow his speed enough to survive it, but not enough to prevent injury on impact. 

“Wait,” Wrecker has questions, “I don’t get it… if Tech is still wearing his goggles, under his helmet there, how can they be the thing that’s recording this?” 

“Good catch Wrecker,” Echo smirks, proud of his brother. 

“Tech had a spare pair of goggles.” Hunter adds. “They must have been in the pack he was wearing when he fell. I used to use whether they were in that pack or this pack,” he gestures with the backup pack he’s still holding, and proceeds to check for the spare pair in it as he continues, “as an indicator of whether or not Tech thought the mission was more dangerous than he was letting on…and they’re not in here. That IS his spare pair… *sigh* I guess you’re right, there were little things he would do to protect us from the full truth.” 

“Don’t feel bad about it Hunter. It means he loves you very much. I just…” she takes a deep breath, “… I’ve found he’s a lot like me, we have a lot of the same habits and ways of doing things. So it’s a little easier for me to put myself in his shoes, so to speak.”  

“So I’ve noticed.” Hunter comments, “It’s sorta comforting, really. You’re just like him… I just wish he had been able to meet you a long time ago. To know that there were others like him, that he was not alone. When we were cadets he often told me that his mind was both his gift and his curse, because it made him unique but being unique meant he was the only one like that. I don’t know if he knew the Kaminoans made him that way because of the effectiveness of people like you.” 

“I know the feeling, and I appreciate the complement.” 

“I’m glad you’re the one Rex sent to help us get them all back. I’m glad he will get a chance to meet you,” Hunter comments. 

“Thank you, Hunter. That means a lot to me, especially coming from you. I know you are having a hard time trusting me, and I understand why. I’ve had trust issues too, they are very hard to work past. Thank you for letting me work beside you guys. It’s nice to have an understanding team that doesn’t hate me for infodumping all the time.”

“I don’t think I realized how comforting it was when Tech did that until he wasn’t there anymore to do it all the time,” Wrecker added. 

“Then let’s get him back, big guy,” she pats his arm. 

Wrecker smiles and nods. 

Echo chimes in, cool headed and taking inventory like the ARC he is “Okay, so… that recording doesn’t add much. It’s only a few minutes between impact and when that trooper steps on the spare goggles and the recording stops, and it’s mostly pointed at the trees and the wreckage of the railcar during that time. But what DO we have to work with now?” 

“What about the things the TK troopers were talking about. Any names ring a bell?” She asks. 

Hunter starts the list for the group “they mentioned the name Hemlock, that’s the man who brought us Tech’s goggles and took Omega.” 

“Hemlock’s facility is the same one Crosshair was wired to” Echo adds. “That’s why we were trying to track his shuttle from Eriadu.”

“The name does appear in Tech’s notes a few times. Mostly about Crosshair and where he may have been taken, but he doesn’t seem to get very far before the railcar incident.” 

“There are so many unanswered questions though,” Hunter interjects, concerned-big-brother (read: concerned-Dad) mode kicking in. “Why did they want Omega? They’re clearly not interested in more clone troopers, so her status as a near-perfect copy of Django is not it.” 

“She knows a lot about cloning. She grew up in close contact with Nala Se, as an assistant of sorts,” Echo shrugs. 

“Tech told me once that the Empire destroyed Kamino so that they could control cloning. That was shortly after the encounter with the Zillo Beast, the one after the war.” Hunter recalls, doing his best to add as much info as he can, as per her request. 

“That’s not much to go on,” Echo sighs. 

“On the contrary, there’s a lot there to unpack.” She starts counting as she adds each one to a list on her data pad, “one: Omega's knowledge, two: her bond with Nala Se, and three: how there are far more cloning projects going on. And, four: looking at Tech’s notes on the Zillo Beast, they utilized Kaminoan technology, and yet there were no indications of any Kaminoans ever having been present in the lab. All the technology was the human-sized versions they developed ‘for interactions with the clones of Django’ as Tech puts it. And here, a fifth one! Records he decrypted when searching for Crosshair indicate that Nala Se is also alive and was transferred into custody of an unlisted scientist. A scientist? Interesting. She’s listed as a prisoner, but she’s not being held by a prison guard. Either way, it seems that Tech, Nala Se, and Crosshair are likely under Hemlock’s ‘supervision’, or rather control, within the Advanced Science Division. Considering Omega’s ties to all the aforementioned individuals, and that it was Hemlock who took her away, it is likely that she is at the same facility.” Feeling elated by the progress they’re making with everyone contributing, she keeps on rolling. “Speaking of, Tech’s notes on the reason the bounty hunters were after Omega and why the stopped hunting her are very vague, suggesting that info was well hidden. Echo, have you and Rex been able to dig up anything more on that?”

“No, Weirdly, there’s absolutely no record of bounty hunters going after Omega in any Imperial logs we’ve found so far. Which suggests it was not the Imperials that put a bounty on her. Let me crossrefference the times at which the Bounty Hunters stopped showing up with the times that things began to move off of Kamino and see if we can find any correlations there.” 

The room is quiet while Echo scomps into the computer. The screen nearest him lights up and Hunter and Wrecker provide additional eyes as he scrolls through the data, pointing out important pieces as they see them. 

“Here!” Echo’s voice is triumphant. “Tarkin issued orders to put the Kaminoan Prime Minister under surveillance and then he was transferred off world! That’s all not long after we rescued Omega from the two bounty hunters and not long before Admiral Rampart destroyed Kamino. Looks like that does correlate with the time we noticed the bounty hunters seemed to have stopped searching for Omega.” 

“So, its likely that it was the Kaminoans that put a target on her.” She reasons, “But why? What secrets do her genetics carry? What value does she have to Nala Se? Most of the evidence we’ve listed so far has to do with cloning, so it would seem that Hemlock’s work is some type of cloning project, but why is he using existing clones as test subjects? What is he cloning that requires test subjects, or are there other medical projects under Hemlock’s control?” Her train of thought seems doomed to derail just like the railcar. 

“If you’re looking for answers, we definitely have less of those than you do” Wrecker laughs. 

“There are clues everywhere.” She uses a finger to emphasize her point, but the glazed look in her eyes tell them her mind is still diving throught the data, “You just need to know where to look and how to read them.” Wrecker found himself exchanging glances with the other two. 

“Okay, let’s backup. We know Omega, Crosshair, Nala Se, and now Tech are all in the custody of this Dr. Hemlock fellow, and all are central figures in his latest cloning project, which seems to utilise Kaminoan tech (if the Zillo Beast incident is anything to go on, that is, though that is a bit of a leap) and requires test subjects, a LOT of test subjects according to the transferred records Echo and Tech recovered. This would imply that all are likely to be found at the headquarters of the Advanced Science Division, and that there are too many things getting shipped into these new facilities for it to stay off the radar for very long. Track enough of them, and they will all trace back to this secret base, like rashnold on a kylak.” 

“But, what does Hemlock want with Tech?” Like the rest of them, Wrecker’s mind is swirling with unanswered questions. 

“It’s not clear,” Hunter answers, “all we know is that he was injured, in a lot of pain and barely conscious, and they have all the facilities to patch him back up there.” 

“I think there’s more to it,” she cringes “but you’re not gonna like it.” She looks with a pointed pain at Echo out of the corner of her eye. 

Echo turns even more pale, picking up on what she’s implying. “No. No, they better not have.” 

Hunter starts to pick up on it too, he leans forwards in his chair and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I don’t have a good feeling about this.” 

“Me either.” She almost whispers it, “But based on the fact that Hemlock needed Omega and Nala Se and test subjects, there’s something they weren’t able to get from the Kaminoan cloning equipment and whatever else they stole from Kamino before destroying it. Likely their records of how to actually do the cloning. Which would mean that they need a mind or two with lots of experience with Kaminoans and their cloning facilities, especially one that’s really good at untangling details and solving complex problems. Based on the fact that Crosshair sent you boys a Plan 88 message, warning that someone is in pursuit, it is likely that Hemlock knows how loyal your team in particular is. That would further suggest that Hemlock knows he’s not going to get anything useful from Tech while Tech is consciously aware of what he is doing. We also know from the Techno Union’s experiments on Echo that it is possible to use an unconscious mind as a strategic processing system. I’d wager that’s exactly what Hemlock plans to do with Tech to extract whatever in haran [hell] he’s missing.” her eyes gloss over as her mind races “kark, it would even be easy to hide him, since his name is ‘Tech’, and how Hemlock is clearly aware that clones are considered property. It’s just a box of equipment and ‘tech’ ready for installation or inspection at his facility, even Tarkin could miss a box with a generic label like that. I shudder to think…” her thought trails off as they all sit in an uncomfortable silence. 

Each of them wore expressions of disgust as they stared into the distance, minds racing. 

“Wait!” Wrecker seems to have caught something “Hemlock caught up with us pretty fast after Eriadu. We’d barely had time to get patched up and Omega got lucky that she woke up before he got there. I remember seeing a Light Cruiser or a Venator or something that looked like one above Ord Mantell! That ship had to come from somewhere and go somewhere, right? That’s a big ship to just disappear off the records all of a sudden! Do you think they already had Tech onboard?” 

“Good point Wreck! You’re right it is!” She adds Wrecker’s input to her growing list on her datapad. 

Echo’s excitement at having a lead they can act on is almost palpable. “We need shipping and transfer records from anything leaving Eriadu immediately after the explosion, specifically anything that went though Ord Mantel on it’s way to it’s destination. If we crossreference that with the destinations of shipments leaving Kamino shortly before Rampart destroyed it, we might be onto something!” 

Hunter seems less worried now that they have something they can do, “Okay, so, step one: find an Imperial communications network we can discreetly tap into and extract shipping records from Kamino and Eriadu without arousing suspicion. Do we all agree with that?” 

“Affirmative, Sergeant!” She and Echo, echo. 

Wrecker cheers. “We’re coming Tech, just hold out a little longer.” 

“...and… Omega and Crosshair” Hunter’s eyebrows raise in concern. 

“Yeah, but Tech is the one in need of a nice medic,” Wrecker points out. 

“We don’t know what state Crosshair is in, but given that he tried to warn us about Hemlock, it seems unlikely that Hemlock is treating him well. He may also be in need of a ‘nice medic’ Wrecker.” Echo points out. 

Wrecker looks around the Marauder, looking at the bandages around Hunter’s waist, while somewhat restrained by his own medical collar. “Seems like we all need that right now,” he mutters. 

“Hey big guy, AZI and I can handle you 3, I just hope we’re included in that ‘nice medic’ count of yours.” She gently nudges his shoulder, “Let’s get you lot on the mend fast so we can break into that Imperial data facility and get the stolen 3 back soon too. Yeah?” 

“Yeah” agrees Wrecker, “thanks little lady, I don’t know what we would have done without you. Echo was right, we did need an outside voice for this mission.” He claps Echo on the shoulder. Even with the medical collar on, Wrecker’s energy seems to be at his usual fervor, as Echo gives him an annoyed look and rubs his own shoulder gently. 

Hunter let’s out a huff and shakes his head. Looking back at the woman he adds in “Wrecker’s right, I don’t think we would have gotten this far without you. Thank you.” He turns to the room at large “Alright. Let’s pick an imperial data relay facility and work out a plan to get the shipping logs for Eriadu and Ord Mantel.” 

Later, during Hunter’s watch, while the others are asleep, she sneaks into the cockpit. 

“Hunter, can I talk to you?” 

He turns in his seat to face her as she sits in the copilot’s seat “Sure. What’s up?” He’s clearly aware of the fact that she just snuck in to talk to him alone while the others were asleep, and is grateful she came to him as the squad leader with her concerns, but trying not to let that get to him just yet. 

“There’s something weird here about all this. Techs actions at the railcar… something doesn’t sit right about it. I’m not sure what exactly though. But I have this weird, nagging feeling that it might have to do with what he found out about Crosshair defecting.” 

Hunter seems glad that she came to him with her concerns “I’m glad you’re telling me this, but I’m not sure I’m going to be much help figuring it out. That’s normally Tech’s job.” 

“So, when Tech couldn’t figure something out, how would you support him?” 

“Usually? I’d force him to get some sleep.” Hunter sighs, “something tells me using my Sergeant status and ordering you to sleep isn’t gonna work here.”

She smiles, “na, not likely. I can’t turn off my mind enough to sleep right now. And I’m not very tired.” 

They sit in silence for a few more minutes before he suggests she just say what she’s thinking out loud. 

“Okay. I might be totally wrong on this though, but I’m not sure how else to interpret this, but it’s more of a feeling than anything supported by evidence this time.” 

“You’ve been pretty spot on so far. I bet you’re not as far off as you think. Tech often says the same thing, and he’s usually got a better handle on it than he thinks he does,” Hunter kinda likes the way she asked what he did to help Tech when he was stuck, this felt exactly the same to him. 

“Tech had a long way to fall, which means he had time to do something. Like more time than it would take to simply get out of the way of that railcar… so why is it that that is all he did? What if there was more to it?” 

“Are you implying that Tech might have intended to get caught and didn’t intend to prevent his own injury?” Hunter asks, worry etching his features. 

“Sorta,” Her expression tells him that she doesn’t like the idea either, “he seems to have reasoned that the only way to get to Crosshair was to get caught, and then just happened to literally fall into the right solution to get to him. He likely knew that if any of you simply surrendered, you wouldn’t be taken to the same place as Crosshair, too risky for the Empire to put a completely healthy and independently creative or ‘deviant’ clone in a situation where one or more of their own was at risk. You lads fight your way out of situations like that all the time…

Tech may have also gotten the inkling that they wanted Omega back too, we established that he knew she was important to something the Kaminoans were doing. The question is what? What did he know that he didn’t write down?...” Her thoughts drift off. 

Hunter just watches, knowing she will continue, theres too many thoughts swirling in her eyes, they need to be let out. 

“But maybe that part doesn’t matter yet. Going back to getting to Crosshair and Omega though… if Tech arrived there healthy his presence would put Omega at risk. They know he’s attached to her and probably wouldn’t hesitate to use her against him. And they wanted more compliant test subjects. The most compliant are always the wounded because they can prolong their vulnerability and exploit it as a weakness. Gruesome and morally twisted, but that seems like the Imperial thing to do given the way the chips fell…” 

“And it’s exactly the sort of thing Tech would just do and then tell us later that he ‘thought it was obvious’” Hunter spoke though his hands, which covered his mouth. His brow knitted in concern. 

The doors opened and Echo entered quietly and sat down. The cockpit doors closed behind him. 

She smiled, “old habits die hard, huh Echo?” 

Hunter raised a brow, but otherwise didn’t move. 

Echo rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Yeah. Something like that.” 

Hunter gave him a look. He wasn’t about to let it go with just that. 

Embarrassed, Echo began explaining “I, uhhh, when I was with the 501st, my bestfriend, Fives, was really good at getting into things that he shouldn’t. But he couldn’t smooth talk his way out of anything. He thought he could tho,” Echo laughed, eyes distant and filled with memory, “it was fun, and it didn’t seem fair to let him pay the price when I would follow him right into trouble, knowing that’s where he was leading us. So I got really good at getting us out of it… I…erh… may or may not have heard most of that conversation. I scomped into the system from the computers back there,” he gestured over his shoulder with his thumb, “and let the surveillance feed play in my uhhh,” he pointed at the device on his head, and looked pleadingly at Hunter, hoping he wouldn’t have to put a name to it. Echo hated how much machinery he required just to live a normal life anymore. 

Hunter just laughed. “Rex warned me about your mischievous side when we took you in. I was wondering how long you were gonna try to keep it to yourself. Though you seemed content to just let it out when you thought I wasn’t gonna mention anything, I think it even encouraged the trickster in Omega a few times.” 

“Ha! Sorry.” Echo pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was afraid of that.” 

“Such a brotherly thing to do, encourage his little sister to be a little troublemaker.” She was smiling at them from her chair. 

Both the men laughed quietly and returned the grin. 

“I’m glad you heard that though, Echo, but I’m not sure we should tell Wrecker. I would hate to make him more worried about Tech. It was so sweet of him to worry about the medical care Tech is recieving. I know medical things bother Wrecker the most. I get the feeling he’d be really upset if he figured out that Tech might have let himself get hurt, intentionally. Wrecker’s got such a big heart.” 

“Then let’s focus on the mission objectives,” Echo chimed in. “I’ve been thinking about whether we should team up with Rex for the intel part of the mission. I have a feeling he wouldn’t want to miss a chance to gather some intel on the Imperials while we have the chance.” 

Hunter’s eyes focused on the floor lost in intense thought, the light of the console and the stillness and determination in his expression only highlighting the tattoo covering half his face. 

After a few moments, he looks back up at Echo and nods. “Contact him. We will see what he says in the morning. Until then, you two need rest, this was supposed to be my watch after all,” he smirks, bidding them goodnight as Echo scomps into the comm system, and she exits the cockpit, yawning and ready for a good rest so they can develop a plan in the morning.

(Part 3)

Please don’t steal my work! I pour my heart into these so if you like it please reblog to share instead of reposting it!

His world was dark. It was strange. He couldn’t see or feel anything. But he knew a lot. And he had his familiar routines. He liked routines. They made him feel useful and gave his life structure. Just like the algorithms he wrote all day long, long scripts of instructions for computers to process and provide him with all the data he needed! 

But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. Nevertheless, he must continue. That was his duty. That was what he was made to do. To keep going despite all odds, and to always find a way. That knowledge reassured him. As did his routines. His routines had become quite a lot like his favorite algorithms. Perhaps too much so. No, that couldn’t be. He was just paranoid because things were calm without the constant chaos of war...

...but there were so many unanswered questions still... like where? Where are they? And where was he?